THE IDIOT’S LANTERN

HOPING TO SEE ELVIS PRESLEY PERFORM LIVE IN New York, the Doctor once more miscalculates, bringing the TARDIS to London on 1 June 1953. As the city and the nation prepare for the coronation of Elizabeth II the following day, people are being secretly kidnapped from their homes around north London. The Doctor’s enquiries bring him into contact with the Connolly family – Eddie, Rita and their son Tommy – who guard their own domestic secret: Tommy’s grandmother is suffering almost total neural shutdown and her face has been wiped of all its features. It becomes apparent that the authorities are undertaking the kidnappings in order to cover up these disturbing and inexplicable transformations during a time of national celebration.

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“History sometimes gives us a terrible shock, and that is because we don’t quite fully understand... We’re all too small to realise its final pattern.”
Doctor Who’s first journey in 1963 took viewers back to the Stone Age. Since then the TARDIS has visited many other landmarks in a unique chronicle of the Doctor’s favourite planet. Purely historical stories were once a mainstay of the series, but for more than 50 years significant periods in Earth’s past have provided evocative settings for more fantastical adventures.
This unprecedented guide takes a trip back in time with the people, places and classic episodes that are essential parts of Doctor Who history.